10 tips to relieve the heat of your baby
This summer temperatures are very high. Temperatures that affect our mood, and make us feel more tired and irritable. This also influences, and to a greater extent, babies, whose thermoregulation system is still in full development and your body is not used to sudden changes in temperature.
In addition to keeping the baby cool to avoid being irritable, it is even more important to control heat strokes. They can become severe in the baby producing dehydration with complicated consequences. Dr. Paloma Nacher, specialist in Neonatology at the Hospital La Milagrosa in Madrid, offers a series of tips to follow these days to relieve the heat of your baby and avoid suffering health problems due to the high summer temperatures.
10 tricks to relieve the heat of your baby
1. Dress them with little light clothing and cotton.
2. Avoid going outside in the hottest hours of sun and heat (12.00-17.00) and place the baby in shady places.
3. Cool it often with a wet wipe by the arms and legs.
4. Do I offer you water? In children with breastfeeding on demand it is usually not necessary to provide water, but occasionally, before a strong heat stroke, they can be offered. Water is a food that will only admit it if they are thirsty. In bottle-fed children, it is always advisable to bring a bottle of fresh water.
5. If possible, these hot days, avoid baby backpacks since the baby travels very close to the body of the mother or the father who gives off a lot of heat.
6. Use the fresh water baths as many times as necessary (without becoming cold). Relieve the heat better than nothing.
7. Place the crib in the coolest place of the house.
8. Ventilate early in the morning and at the end of the afternoon to try to get the room to be at 22º, which is the optimum temperature. Do not hesitate to leave open windows, if necessary, for the air to cool.
9. Avoid air conditioning. It is better to use fans that renew and cool the air, but without being artificial and dry air, for example, ceiling fans. In case of using air conditioning, avoid the cold air jet from your baby directly.
10. When traveling in the car, cool it beforehand with air conditioning and do not put the baby in a car reheated in the sun directly. Then introduce the child with the air already turned off and controlling the heat with the windows. If in spite of this, the heat is unbearable, put the air but always with a partially open window.
Marisol Nuevo Espín
Advice: Dr. Paloma Nacher. Expert in Neonatology at La Milagrosa Hospital in Madrid.
